Your opinions on GCSE ICT as an option please

[kitchendiner]

I would be really interested in your opinions on Edexcel GCSE ICT as an option please.

I have read nothing good about ICT as an option so far. DS would have done Computer Science given the choice but sadly it is not in the options booklet.

Thanks

Edexcel ICT is assessed through 2 units, Living in a digital world is theory and worth 40%. It is really upto date and covers using tech in everyday life, security, health and safety etc. The practical unit is 60% and is completed under controlled conditions. This asks the students to use a range of software to meet a scenario given by the board. Usually there is a graphic problem, media problem, research, spreadsheet etc and full ongoing evaluations.

Whilst on MN it is considered not worth the paper its written on, but it isnt easy (the pratical unit especially). My students enjoy it (I have a range of targets from A to E in my class), I enjoy teaching it and it is a worth while qualification* it hasn't stopped previous students getting offers from very good universities

As a basis for getting into technical IT careers, it is not helpful. However the most useful subject for that is Maths, which everyone has to take anyway.

If your DS really enjoys ICT in school & can get good marks in it, then it's definitely worth considering as a GCSE option - SO LONG AS he also selects some traditional academic subjects alongside it, which will keep lots of A level & degree options open. See the Russell Groups "Informed Choices" booklet about this: russellgroup.org/InformedChoices-latest.pdf

I agree with the excellent advice given up thread. At GCSE level, an interesting and worthwhile qualification for students with an interest, if taken alongside traditional subjects.

I don't think it's bad, just not as academic a choice as computing. But some people will hate computing (do you want to understand how a motherboard works?) while still seeing high value in good ICT skills. It's a good choice for many career directions.

tbh I'd be dubious about forgoing a more long term option for this. ICT is only as good as the time it is taught and by the time your dc is looking to use it it will be out of date. Dc's school do a level 2 equivalent which can be done in non core curriculum time which is more about using software .

ps: stupid question of the day: but why aren't

English lang
English lit
Math
double or triple science

sufficient academic choices? Not talking about the 15-20% who go to redbrick or Oxbridge Unis, but for the 80% of people who will take different development paths. Why does the vast majority need to fret about those not being academic enough choices at GCSE?

-Baffled foreigner.

Depends if can get A-C in all those, and it wouldn't meet Ebacc even with ICT (language, humanity ?)

Ict can be the extra subject in the Ebacc as most of our student who are in that stream study 9 in total and that has been ratified - the Edexcel GCSE. Is a great course not easy but very enjoyable with a lot of transferrable skills. However it is now PROGRESS8 that is the measuring stick used for the current year9 students and ICT is also good for that.

My students now off to uni to study either computer science or computing studied the Edexcel GCSE in its first year and have offers from decent unis including offers from Reading Southhampton Cardiff and Bristol among others

There is a lot of talk about ICT being not sufficiently academic for any Russell group - usually by people who have read more of the daily mail than the syllabus

I do encourage students who take it at gcse but are either looking at medical/veterinary or at Oxbridge not to take it at a level but oddly they do still get the uni offers they want even though they took ICT at gcse

Thank you everyone. I am reading all posts with great interest.

Was it the OCR Nationals GCSE in ICT that was more discredited then? Is the Edexel an improvement on this?

The OCR Nationals are a vocational qualification that a lot of schools used inappropriately to gain league table points which is there is a lot of bad press about them. A school now can only use vocational qualifications as a 'subject' not how many GCSEs it is equivalent to (the measure is 5 subjects including maths and english) each student's inclusion in the measure can only include 2 vocational qualifications.

It wasn't so much the qualification (which if taught correctly is good) but the above that has caused the issues.

There's no 6th form in our county (EA) that requires Ebacc; one apparently requires a language but that's the nearest Ebacc req come to mattering to any of our kids.

I just read on the link further up the thread that the Ebacc is a performance measure for schools and is not required for entry at Russell Group Universities.

Lizs - whilst the software itself might be out of date in a few years time; the skills we teach and how they have to use the current software can be applied to every type of software and in the future as it is not just click here in Excel, click there in Flash but how to solve a problem, how you can find the best solutions and it gives confidence to use software that you may not have previous experience

So dissapointed that the folk around here don't want to understand how a motherboard works...........

The only GCSEs that most non-Oxbridge Unis require is English & Maths at grade C - and for some Unis/subjects there is no GCSE requirement at all.

Usually they are only picky about any other subject at GCSE level if the relevant A level is lacking, although a few Unis (especially for competitive stuff like Economics) mention a 'GCSE profile' - but seem to be more interested in consistent high grades rather than specific subjects as a yes/no.

kitchendiner If your DS is thinking about ICT as an alternative to Computer Science, they are not the same thing.
DD1 (now yr12) did an Edexcel AIDA Level2, which (and please correct me if I"m wrong Cricketballs) seemed very much like the practical element if the GCSE described above. This was compulsory at her school, started in yr9, supposed to have been completed in yr10 but dragged on and on.

It required very good organisational skills and was a huge workload, definitely not worth the amount of work involved for the end result. DD ended up scraping a C equivalent, although teacher assessment was A/A* equivalent - this happened for the majority of their group, B equivalent being the highest achieved.

Was the ICT course run at the school last year? If so, is it possible to see the numbers achieving each grade? Many more practical subjects can be difficult to achieve the highest grades in, so if your DS is an A*/A student in most other subjects, may be worth considering.

MrsBright It's not just caring about the GCSE subjects, some more competitive courses (medicine, law, veterinary?) want a high number if A*/A. So can be a gamble for an academic student to choose a subject they may be less likely to get a high grade in.

I have also seem some asking for B grade minimum Maths and/or English.
Last time I looked, Music at Manchester required minimum B grade English GCSE.

circular Good idea about checking the GCSE ICT results page - will do this later. DS wanted to do computer science but it's not in the options booklet. He has dabbled in programming and would be interested in what a "motherboard" does but it seems he doesn't have the chance to do it so is now considering ICT as an option.

He is bright but has dyslexia so this does need taking into account with all his choices. He is definitely going to have work extra extra hard on written assignments. He might have chosen DT (Res Mats) and Art but the written analysis side of it is putting him off. He will choose Drama but again, I think there's going to be a lot of written stuff.

Is there a DT Product Design?
Art is supposed to be one of the highest workloads.
Drama has quite a bit of group work, so you can be unlucky if grouped with others that mess about. Also difficult to get good grades in.

DD1 never did any of the above, but many of her friends did Art and/or Drama.

No DT Product Design. No DT Electronics which he also wanted to do. There is a BTEC in Creative Digital Media Production??? Don't know if this is worth considering? I need to go and check out the BTEC thread as I don't know anything about it.

He is really into Drama and Theatre so it's a definite. Options Eve approaching so I am going to ask about the levels of disruption. Didn't see many A* or A Grades on the school results page so what you say about it being hard to get a good grade rings true.

I am just realising that GCSE options didn't factor into choice of school and that current school is not actually offering a very wide range. He loves it there though.

DT Electronics is quite unusual. For Computing /IT careers, Maths is the most important, then possibly physics. If more on the business systems side, English and written communication important too.

BTECs have changed recently, but may still take more than one option choice. Don't think they are allowed to be 'worth' more than a single GCSE anymore for league table purposes.

Again, at DDs school, they did a compulsory BTEC (sport or dance) in core PE time. A lot of writing, so time consuming but not difficult, DD managed top grades although writing not her thing, though she did find it (sport) quite interesting. Supposedly worth 2A*, but a bit sceptical. All this compulsory stuff meant only 9 proper GCSEs for even the most academic.

I would not bother. DD is doing it at the moment, its boring!! Children know how to do most of whats taught during GCSE before they start the course.

They are developing a new curriculum at the moment which looks much better.

Yes, as others have said, Maths and Physics, and at 'A' level, are what many Universities want for Computer Science courses.

If he's not yet 'into' programming/coding, the Raspberry Pi is a £25 computer that needs the addition of keyboard and TV or monitor. Several MN families have them, and there are user groups all over the country, as well as on-line support: www.raspberrypi.org/about

Alternatively, if you can find an old BBC Acorn computer, A4000, A5000, RiscPC at a cheap price, and in good working order, there are many on-line groups (and some 'meet-ups' in a few places) to help with programming those:

www.apdl.co.uk/riscworld/volume2/issue6/absbegin/index.htm

Perhaps the way to look at it is, what would he do instead if he doesn't do the ICT? It may be the best of the available options for him. I would have thought it'd be a good idea to discuss with the school the balance of written work for the various subjects, and also the exam to controlled assessment ratios, in view of his dyslexia.

It is hard to think about what GCSEs they may want to do when you're looking at schools in yr5/6 - and the options offered may change anyway (my DD's school only started offering comp sci last year) - so you've done well to choose a school he loves.

I agree physics & further maths would be more helpful for a computer science degree than the ICT GCSE. DH is a programmer and rates DT highly for helping with his career.